APRIL 



BIRD NESTING. 



I. SEA-BIRDS. 



THE schoolboy who goes birds'-nesting for the purpose of 

 getting his string of eggs is quite unconscious that he is studying 

 the elements of one of the latest of the sciences, that of Oology, 

 which until recently has been much neglected, and, in fact, was 

 hardly regarded as worthy of study until its philosophical bearings 

 were pointed out by the late Charles Darwin, by Mr. Alfred 

 Russell Wallace, and Mr. Henry Seebohm. To most persons the 

 strange variations in the form and colour of the eggs of different 

 birds has been merely a matter of curiosity, whereas the naturalist 

 knows that every egg is so marked and coloured to conceal it, as 

 far as practicable, from its enemies, and to adapt it to the 

 circumstances and conditions under which it is laid. In no case 

 is this more strikingly shown than in the nests and eggs of sea- 

 birds, of which we reproduce three examples drawn from the 

 accurate reproductions made under the care of Dr. Giinther, and 

 shown in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. 

 The most remarkable instance of this appears in the large case 

 displaying the adult birds, the young, the eggs, and nest of the 



